BAFTAs cap off a winning Sunday for BBC One
BBC One brought the week to an end with a celebrity spectacular broadcast live from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, as host Stephen Fry brought together the film world’s most available faces for an evening of civilised backslapping, all the while collectively raising the simple act of expressing gratitude into a cringeful art form.
Kind of like the British Soap Awards – with the likes of Julianne Moore stepping in for Danny Dyer – The British Academy Film Awards (9pm) saw many Oscar hopefuls step up their campaigns by showing up for some helpful publicity.
The two-hour event easily won its time slot, helping BBC One’s day-long victory stretch all the way to closing time. 4.9 million viewers tuned in to see Stephen Fry manage to keep things light, cheeky and breezy despite some heavy handed acceptance speeches.
The glamorous shindig, which concluded with Mike Leigh gently rallying against the establishment while picking up his outstanding contribution to British cinema Bafta, netted a 24% for BBC One. The ceremony also came first in the TV Twitter chart, generating 112,077 tweets during broadcast.
This was only the end of a spectacular day for the broadcaster, which managed to hold on to the biggest audience share for the vast majority of the day.
At 7pm, the latest exciting adventure for Tom, Ellie, Matt and the rest of the mischievous Countryfile (BBC One) team brought in a whopping 7.6 million viewers. An audience share of 34% tuned in to see Matt Baker mercilessly hunt for the killer of wetland birds in Rutland, while Adam Henson went on an expedition to see some exciting and rare corn buntings.
Afterwards at 8pm, the weekend’s biggest show arrived bang on time as the fourth series of Call the Midwife (BBC One) reached the halfway point by diving head-first into the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases.
8.8 million viewers tuned in to see wicked Sister Winifred explore the East End’s unholy squalors all in the name of research, securing the biggest audience of the weekend with a 33% share.
Over on ITV, there was both good and bad news for poor old Mr Selfridge at 9pm as the retail conglomerate was getting excited about the possibility of buying a field in the lovely west London hamlet of Acton.
While the bad news came in the form of an unavoidable and expected beating by BBC One, there was also a little hope for the commercial broadcaster.
The lavish(ish) on-the-cheap period drama about the King of Oxford Street returned with a third series three weeks ago and only managed 3.4 million viewers (a noticeable drop on the 4.6 million that watched the series two finale).
Last week saw the audience fall even further, but yesterday brought Mr Selfridge‘s biggest audience so far this series with 3.9 million viewers and a 17% share watching as Harry continued to distract himself from dead relatives and mounting debts.
Earlier, ITV’s late evening was made up by the lightest of light entertainment as the dreaded Get Your Act Together (7pm) returned for a painful fourth episode. The show where very random things happen to very random people, saw host Stephen Mulhern once again smile his way through the pain.
A lowly audience of 1.8 million viewers watched as Clare from Steps ate some fire, Ann Widdecombe joined a circus, while an interchangeable TOWIE person played with a hula hoop. This managed to hypnotise 8% of the available audience.
Up next, H from Steps joined Vernon Kay for the latest instalment of All Star Family Fortunes (ITV) at 8pm. The long-running – and apparently inexhaustible – format secured 2.2 million viewers and an 8% share for ITV.
Over on BBC Two, a repeat of a four part documentary about a super exciting road, Motorway: Life in the Fast Lane (7pm), brought in 1.4 million viewers and a 6% share. There was more automotive fun at 8pm as Jeremy, Richard and the other fella acted out some more badly written banter in the latest episode of Top Gear.
An audience of 5.4 million watched as the competitive men attempted to pimp out their own ambulances, resulting in a 20% share.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
To get all the latest MediaTel Newsline updates follow us on Twitter.